This invention relates to surface processing of power transmission components and, more particularly, to refining a component surface roughness and forming a coating on the refined component surface.
Components such as those in a power transmission often operate in severe wear conditions. Contact among moving components at elevated temperatures may cause wear such as scuffing and scoring of the component surfaces. The wear may have several detrimental effects such as accelerated corrosion and reduced component lifetime. Also, the component surfaces may become rougher over time from scuffing and scoring, causing increased in heat and accelerated wear.
Selected power transmission components may be designed for better wear resistance through surface processing. Conventional surface processing may include refining the component surface, forming a nitride compound on the refined component surface via nitriding, and forming a hard coating over the nitride compound. Conventional nitriding processes form hard nitride compounds on the component surface. The nitrided compound layers may be brittle, friable, and generally delaminate from the component surface because of poor adhesion to the refined component surface. Delamination of the nitrided compound layers may additionally cause delamination of a hard coating that is formed on the nitrided component surface. During operation of the component, the resulting delaminated hard nitrided layer and hard coating particles may undesirably accelerate component wear by scuffing and scoring the component surface.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a surface processing method that provides wear resistance by avoiding use of nitride compounds that may cause delamination and poor adhesion of surface processed features.